2010 Kintaro Duck Race(48 images)

The Kintaro Duck Race is part of the Ashigara River festival that has been held in the town of Matsuda in rural Kanagawa each April since 2008. The festival was created to raise money for the clean-up of the Ashigara and Sakawa river basins and increase awareness of environmental issues. The highlight of the festival is the Kintaro Duck race. Borrowing this unusual and fun idea from the Great...more »

The Kintaro Duck Race is part of the Ashigara River festival that has been held in the town of Matsuda in rural Kanagawa each April since 2008. The festival was created to raise money for the clean-up of the Ashigara and Sakawa river basins and increase awareness of environmental issues. The highlight of the festival is the Kintaro Duck race. Borrowing this unusual and fun idea from the Great British Duck Race, 15,000 plastic bath ducks (each purchased for 500 Japanese Yen) are floated down the river at 2pm with the first hundred ducks across the finishing line about a kilometre down stream of the release point winning prizes for those spectators that had bought them.« less